


Airwaves

by scheherazade



Series: Nantoka Daigaku (College AU) [1]
Category: Tenimyu RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:57:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9052465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scheherazade/pseuds/scheherazade
Summary: “Your listeners can thank me later. They’d thank me more if they could see his cute face, too, but since you refuse to join the digital age and get a vlog—”“I am not interviewing some baseball player!”[In which Yata inadvertently sets up Ikkei and Mario.]





	

  
“Look at this.”  
  
Ikkei blinks at the newspaper that’s suddenly shoved under his nose. The shitty dining hall coffee he’d been in the process of drinking suddenly finds its path blocked by sixteen pages of dubious ledes and sub-par InDesign formatting. There are many reasons why no one reads the school paper, and the utter dearth of newsworthy campus happenings is just one of them.  
  
He looks up at the person holding this mockery of a journalistic exercise. Yata Yusuke stares right back.

“Good morning, Yata-chan,” Ikkei says, because his mother raised him to have manners.  
  
Yata, on the other hand, probably thinks manners are a social construct (which, well). He places the newspaper firmly on the table, pushing Ikkei’s breakfast tray aside to make room, before helping himself to the chair Ikkei had pointedly draped his scarf over — not that he’s expecting anyone, but a guy needs some alone time.  
  
“Seriously,” Yata says. “Read this.”  
  
The paper is folded back to reveal the sports pages. Ikkei sighs. “If I’d known you were that desperate for a trashy read, I could’ve lent you a copy of _Fifty Shades_.”  
  
“You don’t own a copy of _Fifty Shades_.”  
  
“No, but Hideyan does.”  
  
Ikkei sips his coffee and is pleased to find that it isn’t burnt too badly today. Also, Yata’s face looks like he just bit into a non-organic lemon.  
  
“It’s right there next to his econ textbook,” Ikkei adds helpfully. “I can stop by our room before class. You can probably get through it before lunch.”  
  
“I don’t read badly-written porn.”  
  
“I believe the technical term is ‘erotica’.”  
  
“I have a test at noon.” Yata pushes the paper at him again. “Hurry up and read this so I can go study.”  
  
“I don’t remember Division III sports being relevant to trig. Or wait, no, it’s all coming back to me now: the cosine of the distance between bases is equal to the radius of a locker room divided by the square root of homosociality—”  
  
“ _Fresh off a regional final his senior year at Kitagawa Academy, the superstar newcomer of the College’s varsity baseball team is already making waves on campus._ ” Yata is looking at the newspaper, but whether he’s reading the words upside down and backwards or whether he’s already memorized the article verbatim is anyone’s guess. “ _A home run on and off the field, Kuroba Mario (class of 2016) is both a breath of fresh air and a sight for sore eyes_.”  
  
“Seriously, who writes these? The mixed metaphor is bad enough—”  
  
“ _With a .480 batting average and a five-star confidence to go with it—_ ”  
  
“—what does that even mean?”  
  
“— _fans of the team can surely look forward to an exciting season, as our Royal Racketeers take on top rivals next weekend for the season opener_.”  
  
“The school really needs a new mascot.”  
  
“The school needs a new everything,” Yata says, stealing a piece of toast off Ikkei’s plate. “Starting with a new editor-in-chief for this rag. But failing that, alternative media is the way to go. Which is why I booked Kuroba for the radio show this Friday.”  
  
Ikkei nearly chokes on his coffee. “You _what?_ ”  
  
“Youichirou had to cancel anyway. He has a doctor’s appointment.” Yata looks up from the second piece of toast he’s now mangling instead of getting his own food like a normal person. “What? Is there something on my face?”  
  
“No,” Ikkei manages, “but there will be _a varsity jock on my radio hour._ ”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“A jock! On _my_ radio hour!”  
  
“Your listeners can thank me later. They’d thank me more if they could see his cute face, too, but since you refuse to join the digital age and get a vlog—”  
  
“I am not interviewing some baseball player!”  
  
“It’s good publicity. And it’s of interest.”  
  
“It has nothing to do with culture or queer interest, and besides, there’s _nothing_ redemptive about sports— which you’d know if you’d actually take a real class with me instead of ogling my roommate from the back of an econ lecture hall when I _know_ you don’t care a twit about—”  
  
“Representation matters,” Yata says calmly, like he can’t even hear Ikkei. “Isn’t that what Nagayama-sensei keeps saying? And I thought you of all people would love the chance to find some actual allies for the Rainbow Alliance. Right now it’s more of a Rainbow Under Siege.”  
  
“How do you know he’s not a homophobic twat like the rest of them?”  
  
“You’ve never even talked to anyone from the team. I saw you running away from Ueda Yusuke that time—”  
  
“They’re _athletes_. I don’t need to talk to them to know what they’re thinking — or not thinking, which is probably more accurate.”  
  
“Stereotype. I’ll have you know I played soccer for seven years.”  
  
“Before you quit because practice was the same time as tap dance class.”  
  
“Yes, well.” With a deeply contemplative expression, Yata filches the last of Ikkei’s toast; Ikkei hopes he chokes on it. “The world will never know how great I might have been.”  
  
“I’m not doing it.” Ikkei puts his empty coffee mug on his now equally empty plate. “You can’t make me.”  
  
Yata shrugs. “Then I’ll do it.”  
  
“Nobody’s doing anything! I’m cancelling your stupid plan to sabotage my carefully cultivated radio show–”  
  
“It’s already on Twitter.”  
  
Ikkei stares at him. Yata brushes some crumbs off his hands.  
  
Right on cue, Ikkei’s phone buzzes with a new notification. In slow motion horror, he opens Twitter. And there – right there, at the top of his timeline:  
  
Hour Q by Y. Ikkei (FM 107.7) @AirwaveBender  
_We have a very special guest for this week’s TGIF show: #KurobaMario! Tune in at 9:45pm Friday for the exclusive._  
  
Ikkei looks from the abhorrent hashtag to Yata Yusuke’s equally abhorrent face. “Do you even know how to use Twitter?”  
  
“Clearly, seeing as I hacked yours.”  
  
“I can’t believe you,” Ikkei mutters, scrolling down to the new reply to the falsified tweet.  
  
It’s from a @superkuromario. It reads:  
  
_Looking forward to it!! Surfing the airwaves~♪_  
  
“Give him a chance,” Yata says. “Anyway, Mokkun said Kuroba’s dropping chem for Nagayama-sensei’s class. You two can talk about that, if you can’t remember anything about baseball.”  
  
Yata pushes his chair back and gets up. At least, Ikkei thinks he gets up. He himself is too busy glaring at the tilde and the unicode eighth note. Seriously, who still communicates like that? _Unironically?_  
  
“But some basic knowledge would help. Just Wikipedia stuff— honestly, Ikkei, even you should know that the locker room wouldn’t be measured by its radius, given that it isn’t a circle.”  
  
“Says a person who’s also never been in the school locker rooms.”  
  
“Fair point.” Yata picks up the empty breakfast tray. “Guess you’ll just have to ask Kuroba to show you around after the interview.”  
  
Yata smiles at the sudden flush on his face, and is gone before Ikkei can think of an appropriately scathing denial.


End file.
